


A Strange Man Ahead

by Shining_Diamondsae



Series: One great big psychotic dysfunctional family | Hermitcraft [2]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game), evo
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Curious bois, Evo! Grian, Evolution, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Grian forgets how the wings works for a second, Grian goes through a magical girl transformation, Hermitcraft - Freeform, Minecraft, One great big psychotic dysfunctional family, Sort Of, Start of season 6, The hermits are a family, The watchers are good, Void walker Xisuma, Voidwalker Xisuma, Watchers, Winged Grian, Xisuma is dad of the server, change my mind, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:34:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24653176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shining_Diamondsae/pseuds/Shining_Diamondsae
Summary: Grian didn't think Mumbo was serious about the whole 'he should join Hermitcraft' joke he always made. Sure, Grian heard the stories of Hermitcraft that Mumbo told him. He felt like he knew the Hermits despite never actually meetings them in person.But all that changed when Grian met Xisuma, and given an invitation to join Hermitcraft season 6.
Relationships: Charles | Grian & Taurtis, Charles | Grian & Xisumavoid, Grian & mumbo jumbo, Platonic Relationships - Relationship, minor relationships - Relationship
Series: One great big psychotic dysfunctional family | Hermitcraft [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1779679
Comments: 34
Kudos: 424





	1. Chapter 1

Grian landed on the top of his build, laughing wildly as Mumbo made some crazy and wacko joke. The builder adjusted the hat of his Link outfit. The leather black satchel that went across his back slipped off his shoulder.

Mumbo landed next to Grian, laughing as well. He adjusted his red tie and helped Grian onto his feet. The two of them, along with Pearl and Dom, were in the build-swap server, they just finished a whole round of the game Grian created.

"Dude, you had to make the spoon look like me?" Mumbo laughed, flying around the spoon the orc/goblin held in his third arm.

"Yes! Cause you are one!" Grian kept laughing, going up to fly and land on the spoon he built. "You don't get to talk, what is that?" He pointed at Mumbo's platform.

"It's Redstone Man!" Mumbo cried out, tear almost escaping his eyes from how hard he laughed.

"Okay but who uses redstone in a build?" Grian called out, flying over to Mumbo's side.

"A redstoner that's not very good a building, that's who." Mumbo retorted, landing on the smaller platform Redstone Man held up. He landed in between the smaller version of their builds. "I'm so going to brag to xB and Scar."

Grian's laughter died down, the smile still glued onto his face. He heard so many stories of the hermits in Hermitcraft, from the Convex pranks to the Big Logz Incorporated drama. Mumbo has also mentioned him talking to Xisuma to invite Grian onto Hermitcraft, of course Grian only saw it as a playful and light joke.

The two of them kept talking until Grian got a message from his communicator. He pulled up the chat, changing it to the Evo chat happening right now.

Mumbo took Grian's communicator to Doc, a hermit skilled with mechanical engineering, and gave it back to him the next day. Doc added in a few tweaks that allows Grian to chat with Mumbo, despite them being in different servers.

<Tomohawk> Netty found a Watcher tower  
<Tomohawk> It could be clues to the next update  
<Inthelittlewood> We're on our way

Pearl flew over from where she was towards Grian, peeping over Grian's shoulder to get a better look. Mumbo and Dom looked at the communicator as well, seeing more messages from the Evolutionists players.

"We gotta head out." Grian spoke, backing up on the Mumbo head with Pearl.

"I'll go first and tell them you're on your way." Pearl spoke, Grian gave her a curt nod. She pulled up the menu screen and disappeared with a flurry of purple and black particles. Another message appeared on Grian's communicator.

<Pearlescentmoon has joined the game>  
<Pearlescentmoon> Grian is on his way, where's the tower?  
  


Grian turned to Mumbo and gave him a brief hug. "You go do your thing with the Watchers and all." Mumbo spoke, pulling back to put his hands on Grian's shoulder. "It was nice hanging out today."

"Yeah, it really was. Don't be a spoon and try not to cause too much lag for the hermits?" Grian said, smiling gently at his friend.

"I'll try to do the first one." Mumbo joked.

Grian opened up the menu screen on the communicator, several gray rectangular buttons appeared in front of him, Grian pressed on the button that said: Servers.

A list of servers appeared, some from past projects he did with Mumbo, a couple private creative ones where he experimented with building styles and structures, and the Evolution server.

Grian pressed the Evo server address, the stats and numbers appearing on screen, showing which players were afk or not, and a button on the button that said: Teleport.

"I'll talk to you later, Mumbo!" Grian said, and with a final wave, pressed on the teleport button.

A whirl of purple and black particles surrounded him until he could no longer see Mumbo, obscured by the particles. Mumbo watched a message appeared in the chat:

<Grian has left the game>

~~~

Grian walked around downtown Evo. I missed flying so much and heard the stories Mumbo told him about elytras. Grian's wings were hidden, a deal he made with the Watchers when the server was created. Grian wasn't allowed to use his wings until they made it to 1.0.

Grian and Zee were building up downtown Evo: which meant dealing with messy sheep farms and a giant Elmo on one of the buildings. Grian returned from grinding a bunch of sand and clay, his green and white Link outfit covered in the grainy sand that refused to separate from his clothes.

Grian walked back to the piles of chest in front of a brick building, he dumped the contents into the chest when his communicator dinged with a message from a certain hermit. Grian's fatigue went away, replaced with a smile as he opened his communicator to look at the private chat.

<Mumbo Jumbo> Grian!  
<Mumbo Jumbo> I'm sending you an IP address  
<Mumbo Jumbo> We got some amazing news to share!

Grian's eyebrows burrowed at the word 'we', he didn't know any friends of Mumbo other than the hermits he always talked about.

<Grian> We?  
<Mumbo Jumbo> Yeah, I'll explain when you arrive  
<Mumbo Jumbo> Hurry!  
<Grian> Fine, fine

Grian laughed lightly to himself, sending a message to Zee stating that he would be right back. Grian opened the menu and scrolled through the lists of servers he had. He saw a new one which he was invited to, it's name being a jumble of letters, typical Mumbo.

Two players were active on the server, one of them was Mumbo but Grian wasn't sure who the other player was. Never the less Grian teleported to the server and felt his surroundings change and shift.

The builder stood on a flower meadow, sun flowers, lilacs, peonies, and roses towered up to nearly his height. The sun was in the middle of the sky and clouds slowly moved across the blue sky.

Grian saw two figures chatting a couple blocks away from him. Mumbo was standing next to a player with a light gray helmet obscuring his head. He had tanned skin and green shirt and pants on. Whenever he stepped, he emitted light purple and black particles.

A void walker. Grian thought. But he couldn't remember anyone Mumbo mentioned that fit the description.

"Grian!" Mumbo's voice called out, walking to his friend.

"Hey Mumbo!" Grian fist bumped his friend, then turned to the other player, confusion etched in his eyes.

The other player laughed lightly, his gently voice calming Grian down. "Nice to finally meet you, Grian. My name's Xisumavoid, you can call me Xisuma for short. I'm the admin of Hermitcraft."

"Nice to finally meet you too, X-I-Suma." Grian joked, messing with the pronunciation of the admin's name.

"You were right about him being chaotic." Xisuma spoke towards Mumbo, Grian's call of 'hey' left ignored. Mumbo snickered in response.

"So there's got to be a reason we're meeting right? If Mumbo wanted to introduce me to the hermits then he would've brought all of them, wouldn't he?" Grian asked, looking between the two other players.

"You're right." Xisuma said. "We're here to offer you an invitation to join us for Hermitcraft season six." Xisuma took out an envelope and handed it to Grian.

The builder held the envelope delicately in his hands. It was made of light-brown paper and felt smooth against his fingers. The envelope was closed by a red wax seal with the letters 'HC and the roman numeral for six printed on it.

Grian's mouth was agape as he stared at it. He never thought Mumbo was serious of the whole 'invite him to Hermitcraft' joke. Grian looked back up at Xisuma and Mumbo.

"Thank you so much for the invitation, Xisuma." Grian bowed his head, the letter sat in his hands still.

"Don't thank me, the hermits, as a group, collectively got together to discuss about this, they all want to meet you and want you to join Hermitcraft. We're basically a really tight-knit family and would love to have you as a member." Xisuma spoke, Grian felt the tip of his ears heat up and was glad he was still wearing the hat.

"We are still in the midst of Hermitcraft season five and won't be changing seasons for quite a while. Take your time to think about this, Grian." Xisuma placed a gloved hand on his shoulder.

"I bet you got stuff to work on in Evo." Mumbo changed the subject.

"Oh right, downtown Evo! Grian said, he held onto the invitation with one hand, pulling up the menu with another. "It was nice meeting you guys, I gotta head out!"

"Bye Grian!" Xisuma spoke, waving goodbye.

Grian waved back, a smile still on his face when he appeared in the middle of downtown Evo.

~~~

Grian remembers stories of Mumbo telling him about the other hermits. They were all invited to Hermitcraft for a change and a place to call home. To Grian, Evo was currently his home and he didn't want to leave.

The opened envelope laid forgotten ontop of a chest in his base in downtown Evo. No one knew of the letter, not even Taurtis, Grian's closes friend in Evo. He never brought it up in front of Mumbo as well.

Grian had a sudden shift in attitude as well. He was more private, hiding stuff from the Evolutionists and keeping secrets from his friends. He knew bottling up his emotions weren't healthy for him.

After weeks upon weeks he finally mustered up the courage to tell the others.

<Grian> Can everyone meet up in downtown Evo?  
<Grian> I got something important to share.

Grian sat patiently at a table he made for everyone. One by one the Evolutionists arrived.

"I got news to share, and it's good." Grian said, "I've been invited to join Hermitcraft for season six."

"Grian, that's amazing!" Salem spoke up with a large smile. His friends were proud of him.

"It is but... I'm not sure if I want to leave you guys." Grian took out the envelope and placed it down on the table. "I know Hermitcraft is a dream come true for me but I don't want to leave you guys. All the times we spend messing around and hanging out together, it just reminds me how much I will miss you all."

Pearl placed a hand on his shoulder, Grian turned to look at her. "Grian, this is your chance. You've told us so much about Hermitcraft, you can't just throw away this invitation. Yeah, we will miss our gremlin when you leave but this is your shot."

All the other Evolutionists spoke up their thoughts, all of them encouraging Grian. "Just keep in touch when you leave, yeah?" Tomahawk spoke with a smile.

"Take your time to make your mind, Grian, we're not going to force you into choosing now." Taurtis said.

Grian gave a curt nod and smiled to himself.

~~~

Grian responded to Xisuma a week later. He accepted his offer.

Mumbo told Grian they were heading to season six soon, Mumbo wasn't aware that Grian was soon to be joining them. Xisuma sent Grian the address to get to the season six server a day after he accepted.

Grian told the news to the other Evolutionists, they threw him a tear-jerking but also wild goodbye party before he left and Grian took one last tour around the server to see how much has changed since they all joined it.

They stopped at the center of Evo, seeing a bedrock portal similar to the ones from the end. There was a light purple chest in front of the portal with a sign on it, the sign displayed the Watcher symbol.

"That's a weird looking chest." Taurtis spoke up.

Grian slowly opened the chest, seeing it labeled differently. "It's a... shulker box?" Grian muttered out. "Probably from a different update."

"What's in it?" Zee asked.

"A note... jeez this is Galactic, give me a second..." Grian translated the ancient Minecraft language to English. "The Universe guides the fates of others, unknown or not, everyone has a purpose in life."

Grian put down the note and saw his friends faces lit up in astonishment. "What?" Grian asked.

He felt himself feel light on his feet and Grian turned his head around to see what they were staring at. His wings were back, the Watchers gave him his wings back. Grian's face lit up with a wide smile as he flapped them, lifting himself off the ground.

"I guess the Watchers are saying goodbye." Pearl joked. "They gave you a cooler way to get to the server."

"I guess this is goodbye--" Grian held his arms behind his back.

"Wait, G!" Mini cut off. "You're not going to 1.12 or whatever looking like that." He took out a object covered in brown parchment with twine tied to a bow.

"A gift, from all of us, even the Watchers." Zee added in with a tilt of his head when the mentioned the Watchers.

Grian undid the bow and opened up the present. He gasped as he held up his signature red sweater. His outfit was replaced when he joined Evo, the version wasn't stable enough to load his most recent outfit, the same went to the other Evolutionists.

Grian took off his green coat, unbuckling the black belt around the coat and taking it off to reveal the white t-shirt underneath. Grian slipped the sweater on and adjusted it's neck, it fit him good as new.

Taurtis walked forward and took the green pointy hat off. Grian ruffled his fingers through his dirty blonde hair, adjusting it back to his signature fringe. Grian wiped off the dirt on his black jeans, which stayed the same throughout the skins, and smiled.

"Okay, now you're ready!" Netty cheered. "You're back to your recent self."

Grian pressed F5 mode on his communicator and his perspective changed to see himself fully. He laughed at the sight of his regular non-beta self and went back to first-person perspective.

"Thank you guys, so much." Grian said. "I'm not really good at goodbyes..."

"Oh come in here!" Salem dragged Grian in for a tight group hug, their last one.

Grian closed his eyes tight, he wrapped his wings around the group protectively as he hugged them. "Thank you." He whispered, pulling back and fanning his wings out.

"We'll miss you, Gri!" Pearl said, lightly shoving him towards the portal. "Now get on there with your smiley and chaotic nature and have fun!"

"I won't ever forget you guys!" Grian spoke, waving furiously as he backed up towards the portal.

Grian looked down at the swirling vortex of black void matter. With one final smile, Grian hopped into the portal, feeling himself getting transported to Hermitcraft season six.

Grian felt the void surround him. A smile was still on Grian's face as he fell and landed on the foot of a small flower-filled hill. Grian pressed F4, seeing it was 1.12, the aquatic update.

The builder flapped his wings and flew straight upwards, turning around slowly to see the world which would soon change with the arrival of the hermits.

Grian slowly flew back down, beaming at the thought of finally meeting the other hermits and seeing Mumbo and Xisuma again.

The builder heard a familiar whooshing sound of a portal. He looked at the top of a hill and saw an obsidian portal appear, it's vortex wasn't the natural nether-styled purple, but instead an vibrant light blue color.

Grian took a curious step forward, then took many steps back as many people lagged out of the server.

"A strange man ahead!" 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reposted because there were mistakes I found >.<  
> Anyways, as per request, here is part two!

"A strange man ahead!"

"Many people are lagging out of the portal." Grian joked, met with laughter and a 'wow' from a girl with short brown hair. He felt himself self-consciously hide his wings, but didn't have time to ponder about it.

"Who is this guy?!"

"Yeah, new hermit? Who he?" (Jevin)

"Uh..." Grian looked at the many unfamiliar faces in front of him. "Hi!" He waved briefly. The group of over 20 spread out, forming a small semi-circle around him.

"FOR SPARTA!"

Grian felt himself get shoved a few blocks away and stifled a small laugh.

"I just felt that when I ran up to you."

"I got a lilac for you."

Grian turned to the same brown-haired girl as she placed the lilac on the ground next to him.

"Wrong server, everybody, back into the portal! Sorry, we're leave you alone." Grian laughed as the joke and turned to see Mumbo and Xisuma standing on the side.

Xisuma was simply watching the chaos unfold, waiting for his turn to properly introduce the new hermits to the others. He smiled behind his helmet as he watched the interactions play out in front of him. It was typical for his hermits to act all chaotic, Grian was no different based off what he heard from Mumbo.

Mumbo was a bit astounded, fully unaware that his best friend had accepted Xisuma's invitation. He looked different from when he last him as well. His green Link outfit was gone, replaced with a brand new Grian. He looked so different Mumbo had to do a double-take to check it was actually him.

Xisuma decided walked over to Grian and stand besides the builder, greeting him again. Grian was glad to see a familiar face and greeted Xisuma, then turned to Mumbo and smiled at him. Mumbo let out a breath of air with a smile and ran up to his friend.

"Grian! My gosh! You're here!-- You didn't tell me you--- Xisuma!" Mumbo whined, turning to the admin.

"Sorry Mumbo. Grian's orders were to keep quiet of this." Xisuma spoke, placing a hand on Grian's shoulder and turning to look at the hermits.

"Oh you-" Mumbo turned back to Grian. "You never brought it up, I thought you declined!"

"Everyone, meet Grian, our newest hermit." Xisuma introduced, then turned to Grian.

"You look different from when we last met. You have your new skin on, no more elf Grian!" Mumbo cried out, bewildered out of his mind. "Oh goodness, has it been that long since we met?"

"Lets just say the Watchers were very generous to me." Grian added. He unhide his wings, spreading them out to show off to Xisuma and Mumbo.

Mumbo took a couple steps back, admiring Grian's wings as they spread out wide. The total wing span was 15 feet, the golden feathers shining and glistering under the light of the sun. Grian heard a small gasp and turned to the hermits.

"An Avian!" A boy with yellow hair called out, pointing at him. He quickly spread out his red and black wings as well.

"Who are the Watchers?"

"Are you a builder or a redstoner?"

"Guys, he's still new." Xisuma silenced the curious hermits down. "Be nice to him." He was met with small apologies as the hermits shut their mouths.

"Well, it's really nice to see all of you guys in person." Grian spoke up in the silence. "Mumbo told me a lot about you guys..." A series of 'aw' went out throughout the crowd.

"Trust me, Grian, Mumbo told us a lot about you as well." A girl with blonde hair spoke. "I guess you don't know our names, so shall we get started?"

A dozen voices spoke up at once, totally ignoring Xisuma's previous remark or 'be nice to him'. False jumped up from her casual stance while Xisuma just chuckled and gave up, letting the hermits do the work for him.

~~~

After a while, Grian managed to connect faces to names. The sun was mid-way to the horizon and Mumbo was the first to notice.

"I'd love to stay and chat, Grian, but the sun's going down and we all know what that means." He spoke, looking up briefly then back down.

"We're all going to die!" Stress called out. None of them had any materials or armor, so night time was sure to be hard.

"Okay everyone, meet up here at 8 for celebration for season six!" Xisuma spoke. "Now go!"

The hermits ran away from the portal, some of them formed groups to get basic materials like wood and concrete. Grian spread his wings open and began to fly until he was stopped by a forest of oak trees.

FalseSymmetry has made the advancement [Time to Strike]  
<ImpulseSV> And False already has a sword, why am I not surprised? 

Grian chuckled and kept on collecting the wood, he look out at the ocean to his right, and then back down at the map Xisuma gave him. The main area was divided up to districts, with each district having a specific building style.

Grian wanted to set up a started base in the ocean since he was so new to the aquatic update, he could possible learn a thing or two of recent Minecraft functions since he spent so long in Evolution.

The hermit flew over the ocean surface, just a few inches above it. Grian placed his hand in the cool water, seeing dolphins, turtles, and fishes swimming about. Large forests of kelp spread out along with bubble chasms with magma blocks pulling down anything that was in their grasp.

"Wait, what's that?" Grian called out to himself.

The hermit stopped flying and looked directly downwards at a mess of wood underneath the sea. It was a ship-wreck, and Grian's first time seeing one.

The hermit relaxed his wings and landed in the ocean with a small splash. His wings didn't seem to get wet. Grian always remembered hating to go swim with his wings on his back since they took forever to dry.

"The Watchers must've done something to it... well thanks." Grian looked up at the sky, thanking the Watchers, unsure if they saw him or not.

Grian bobbed up and down in the water then took a deep breath. He dived all the way down and saw the shipwreck get closer and closer. The hermit entered through a door that somehow remained intact and entered an air bubble.

He gasped for breath and looked around. It was a tight fit but Grian could manage with it. A light bulb appeared over his head and Grian quickly grabbed his dirt and went to work on his starter base.

The cobble platform with all his materials was above the water. A semi-circle of sand sat on it. From a distance, it wasn't the prettiest, but Grian had a plan with it. The day pass and Grian was starting to get use to 1.12's functions.

That was, until, he heard the familiar sound of a zombie moaning. Under the water of all places. Grian looked to see the sun hasn't set yet, how could mobs already be out?

The hermit shuffled to the edge of the platform and took a peek off the side "What the-?" He yelled.

A light blue, zombie-looking, tattered clothes mob popped up from underneath. Grian stumbled back on the cobblestone platform in fear. "What is that thing?" He cried out.

Grian pulled up the Hermitchat, scrolling past the endless achievements and messages to one of the early deaths of the season:

<Stressmonster101 was slain by a Drowned>

"Oh... so that's what those things are..." Grian spoke to himself.

Grian huffed out, not letting the mob distract him from making his starter base. Grian spread his wings and grabbed his iron sword . He quickly made work at killing all the Drowned in his area. The place was cleared eventually and Grian turned around to keep working on his base.

The starter base was almost done! All that was left to do was break the cobble underneath and--

And a teal colored trident flew right pass his head.

Grian snapped his head around, groaning at the thought of another Drowned coming to distract him. He walked over to the trident wielding Drowned and avoiding another throw of the sharp trident. He made quick work with the mob.

Back to his base. Grian worked quickly to removed the cobble and watch the sand sink to the bottom of the ocean. The day pass on and Grian emptied out the last of the sand in his sphere. He even made way for the small room underneath on the shipwreck.

It was small and quaint, most of his belongings barely fit but Grian would make do with it for the time being. The moon was rising and Grian double checked the time, 7:53 p.m., he should head to the shopping district soon.

The hermit swam back up to the surface and flew up to the last of the cobble platform, the humidity in the air drying him of. He saw a figure on the ocean sitting in a boat, rowing towards the shopping district. Grian flew towards the other hermit, popping in from behind.

"HI, MUMBO!"

Mumbo flinched violently and whipped his head around, he saw Grian hovering just a few feet from the surface and smiled at the sight of his friend.

"Jesus, Grian, you scared the daylights out of me!" Mumbo placed a hand up to his chest.

"Sorry 'bout that." Grian apologized, he saw another hermit rowing near by. "SCAR!"

Mumbo and Grian turned to see the former Convex member row up to them. His cowboy hat was tucked in his inventory just to be sure it didn't fly off his head and land in the deep blue. Scar grinned and rowed up to the two other hermits.

"Hey, Grian and Mumbo!" Scar waved. "I didn't think we'd make starter bases a bit close to each other. I'm on that island far back. We better get going to land."

Grian flapped up a bit higher and his eyes lit up with an idea. Mumbo groaned out loud, knowing Grian wasn't up to any good, Scar just gave a confused smile.

"RACE YOU TO THE SHOPPING DISTRICT!"

Before any of the others reacted Grian dashed off towards land.

~~~

Xisuma was chatting with Cub and Ren when a gold and red figure dashed up at insanely fast speeds from in front of him. Xisuma instantly recognized it as an alarmed Grian.

"I FORGOT HOW TO BRAKE!"

They turned to see a flying hermit whizz past them as he yelled. The avian angled himself so that his back hit the ground first. He crash landed on the ground, rolling around the dirt and jumping back up just as enthusiastically.

"Grian!" Mumbo and Scar docked their boats and ran towards the hermit who was wiping the dirt off his clothes. "Are you okay?"

Grian bounced back up to his feet like he didn't just crash land in the shopping district, his wings shook like how a wet dog would shake its body to get rid of the debris. "Yeah, I never flew that fast before." Grian grinned wildly, Mumbo just let out a relieved sigh and Scar smiled back.

"You got a shulker box full of chaos, Grian. That was terrifyingly cool." Ren joked, patting Grian on the back.

"Just remind us next time you decided to do that again." Cub laughed and walked towards them, Xisuma just standing a little bit behind him, the other hermits were gathered close by, in ear-reach of the conversation. "But you're not hurt, right?"

"Oh, no, I'm perfectly fine." Grian ran his fingers through his hair, pulling out a couple stray leaves. "Wasn't my first time crashing into an object or the ground... though I do seem to be going faster than before. I guess the Watchers did something to the speed? Maybe they changed up the layout of the bone structures... it could explain why I felt lighter on my feet when I got my wings back..."

"Okay, roll it back." Tango spoke up, Zed and Impulse right besides him. "What are the Watchers? You've mentioned them since you got here."

"That's rather a long story..." Grian rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "But in short, they're kind of like gods of the servers. Sometimes they interact with the server, sometimes they don't. In Evo they interacted with us and left us clues to the next update or version, they also gave me back my wings when I left."

"So they can be looking at us right now?" Impulse asked, Grian gave a large nod, still smiling. "Well, that puts a whole new perspective on things..." Impulse shuddered.

"So, what's new in Minecraft. I had first hand experience with a Drowned for the first time, kinda weird. Their bodies move like they're at a rock and roll concert or something. Also, what's a shulker box?" Grian rambled.

"You're kidding." Impulse said "You're joking, right?"

"Nope!" Grian responded with a swift turn of his head. "One of them appeared in Evo with a note from the Watchers. It doesn't look like any chest I've ever seen."

"Grian, out or curiosity." Iskall spoke up. "What version were you in back in Evo?"

"1.7."

"You're kidding!" Impulse said louder.

"There's a reason why it's called Evo, you know?" Grian spoke. "Until elytras existed, I wasn't allowed to have my wings. But, in all seriousness, what's a shulker box?"

The hermits all looked at each other, Xisuma took the lead and stepped forward, holding onto Grian's shoulder. "We've got some explaining to do about 1.12..." He said.

~~~

"I gotta say, Grian." Iskall spoke, wrapping an arm around Grian's shoulder and leaning about half of his body weight against Grian.

"You're known for being this super awesome builder of doom and all." He gave a nudge towards Mumbo, Grian just laughed as Mumbo turned away.

"But did you see the place we were in versus your little world? I mean, doesn't look all that impressive." Iskall slurred, looking around the empty shopping district. Grian removed his drink from his hand slowly.

"Well the secret is that this world started as a single block of bedrock and he built all of it." TFC joked from the side, earning a laugh from the other hermits.

"Well, there's always a way we can settle that. Build swap!" Grian called out, Mumbo let out a playful sigh from behind him. "You me, and my crazy friends that I somehow hired to be the judges."

"Ay man, it's Scar you want to go against, not me." Iskall put his hands up, pushing Scar in front of him, a whine coming out from Scar's lips. ("Iskall-!").

"So, Grian. You got any more questions about 1.12's features?" Xisuma changed the subject, walking up behind Grian.

"Oh yeah, I've got one...." Grian spoke, resting a finger on his chin to think, then looked sheepishly at the hermits. "How does... Hermitcraft... work?"

"How does it work?" Xisuma wasn't expecting such a question and looked at the other amused hermits.

"We play Minecraft!" Stress began, frolicking over to them with a wide smile.

"Like one great, big, psychotic, dysfunctional family." TFC finished.

The hermits laughed, it was the perfect description for the hermits. Grian beamed ear to ear as he kept talking with the hermits. He felt himself instantly click with them, sharing stories that only could've been possible if it wasn't for Mumbo and Grian hanging out together and Mumbo blathering it to the others.

Sure, he will miss the Evolutionists, but the hermits filled the empty spot in his heart. The night grew on and Xisuma silenced the loud crowd. Everyone turned to their admin as Xisuma lightly tugged Grian to stand in the center.

Grian stood there, eyes scanning the crowd of friends he had made in less than a day. He smiled at them all and turned to Xisuma was curious eyes that reminded the admin a bit like Keralis. He put a comforting hand on Grian's shoulder.

Xisuma lifted his hand up to the sides of his helmet and Grian watched as he saw the admin without his helmet and saw the admin's face for the first time. A scar ran through his right eye and vertically and his brown hair was softly curled, parted in a messy fringe.

"Welcome to the family, Grian."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the support and love you gave last chapter (and on Lost and Found!)!  
> Your comments really inspires me to continue writing so it's much appreciated!  
> Also, some of the dialogue in this chapter was taken from Stress and Iskall's season 6 ep 1 videos, it was real fun to watch them again to get a sense of Grian's first interaction with the hermits.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment down below if you want a part two.  
> I have plans for doing a part two but not sure if I should since I'm already satisfied with the ending.  
> As always, thank you for reading!


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